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Marie - I think this whole dyeing process is going to be ever changing. However, at our LQS on the 22nd, this is what we did. Patti and Donna can correct me if I really screw this up.

We each had a yard of Prepared for Dyeing (PFD) fabric and three packets of Dylon Dye. We were instructed to put a Tablespoon of salt (apparently not supposed to use iodized which I did with the batch i started Friday) in a pint jar with very warm to hot water. Stir until completely dissolved. When the water is a bit cooler, we added a heaping teaspoon of the dye of our choice. Individual jars for each color but you can add two dyes together if you are after a different shade. We then put our glass jars out in a snowbank to cool off. We wet down the fabric by rinsing in water.

You need a rack (not metal) to scrunch, fold or however you want your fabric to be and lay the fabric on the rack. Have a tub that supports the rack (rubbermaid dishpan works great or one of the garden flats you get in the spring when you are planting flowers. Then cover the whole thing with snow - 5-7" - make sure no fabric is sticking out. Then you can spoon on the dye or pour it directly from your jar, wherever you want it. You can pour one color on top of another, the sky is the limit on this. First time around, you don't have a clue as to what is going to happen.

Leave project alone in an unheated place - mine have each taken two days from start to finish. The shop where we did the first one through the LQS might have been insulated - my storage shed is NOT but the weather is a bit warmer now too.

When snow is all melted, you start the rinsing process. You rinse, and rinse, and rinse many, many times. A lot of color came out of my first one and it ended up pretty pastel but pretty. When the water finally rinses clear, you then rinse it with a half a cup of vinegar to 1/2 gallon of water several times. Then you wash it twice - I used warm water but a magazine article my SIL has says it should be hot. This is to get all the vinegar out. Then dry to damp feel and then press the heck out of it. Also when drying it, I was brave and put a couple yards of fabric that had purple and pink in them in with my dyed fabric but used a "Color Catcher" sheet made by Shout. They all came out great.

Hopefully if I screwed this up, Patti or Donna will correct me. Now I will get some pictures posted of what my second batch looks like thus far.

Basically, you take your wet prepared fabric, scrunch it up or fold it to fit on a screen, or something the melting snow can drip down into a basin. Pack on 4-7 inches of snow, and spoon or pour your dye over the snow. When all melted, take the fabric and rinse multiple times until no or very little color shows in the water. Set the color remaining by washing it with vinegar or retayne.

When mixing the dye to go on the snow, follow manufacture's directions, but use less water, as the snow will dilute the mix as it melts.

Then also, just experiment, there is really no wrong way to do it, with proportions, etc. Trial and error and hopefully happy surprises.

Marie, check out the site Donna posted, youtube, or the Dec/Jan issue of Quilters Newsletter.

There are a few alternative ways to do it.

What I did this last time:

1) we used dylon permanent fabric dye. (JoAnn's carries it.) dissolve about 2 tablespoons dye in a 1/4 cup hot water. Add a table spoon of non-iodized salt. dissolve, and add about another 1/2 cup of hot water. sometimes you get crystelized chunks, but break those up. Be sure to use kitchen gloves. A mask or something to cover your mouth/nose is also advised to avoid inhaling any of the powder. And cover everything you don't want to get dye on.

2) prepare the fabric, either get PFD fabric (prepared for dyeing) or wash with synthapol to remove sizing, etc. Wet the fabric. (I went ahead and used synthapol with my PFD fabric anyway.)

3) scrunch up or fold the fabric and put it on top of a screen or something with holes for the snow to melt through. (and a basin to catch the melting snow/dye.)

4) pack snow 4-7 inches deep over the fabric, covering it completely.

5) poor or spoon the dye on top.

6) when the snow has melted (it can take 2-3 days or more depending on how cold it is.) Rinse and rinse, and rinse until the rinse water is clear, or very close to being clear.

7) set the color by washing with retayne or distilled white vinegar.

DO NOT USE ANY UTENSILS YOU INTEND TO USE WITH FOOD. Everyone cautions you to never use the items used for dye, even if washed several times, in any food preparation.

Also, most of this is done outside or in car port, etc. Keeps the dye from getting on things, or contaminating your kitchen area.

We each had a yard of Prepared for Dyeing (PFD) fabric and three packets of Dylon Dye. We were instructed to put a Tablespoon of salt (apparently not supposed to use iodized which I did with the batch i started Friday) in a pint jar with very warm to hot water. Stir until completely dissolved. When the water is a bit cooler, we added a heaping teaspoon of the dye of our choice. Individual jars for each color but you can add two dyes together if you are after a different shade. We then put our glass jars out in a snowbank to cool off. We wet down the fabric by rinsing in water.

Basically, what Marge said above is correct however, I do have a couple of "tips" I would add:

Be sure you shake and massage the dye packet before you open it. The Dylon dye packets are pre-mixed with soda ash (and sometimes multiple base colors) so you need to be sure that the components are equally distributed in the packet before you start measuring out spoonfuls for your dye mix. Also, this dye (while relatively safe) does have warnings for breathing, etc. Use in a ventilated area and avoid breathing any powder/dust that may escape before it is mixed in suspension (with the water in your jar).

I think in the class (now Patti & Marge can correct me if necessary) that the amount of hot water recommended to be added to the non-iodized salt was 1/2 Cup. (From the beginning, I knew I wanted more intense colors from this process, so I used 1/4 Cup of hot water.) Stir well to dissolve the salt. (FYI, I found that the 1/4 Cup of hot water was not sufficient to dissolve the amount of Dylon dye I used (1-1/2 Tblspn). I will always start with 1/2 Cup of hot water from now on!)

Next add the Dylon dye - we were using plastic spoons so we measured salt from the spoon into a measuring Tablespoon so we got a good idea of how many of our plastic spoonfuls equaled 1 Tablespoon. I believe, 1 Tablespoon of Dylon is what we started with. Again, because I wanted more color, I added 1 1/2 Tablespoons. ( See my FYI above - as I had a problem with the dye not dissolving in the 1/4 C of water.) This is not an exact measurement, just get it close!

MIX WELL - BUT...do NOT shake the jar! (I did this and it did not work at all (it got very foamy).) Stir until everything is well dissolved.

Yesterday, I experimented and instead of adding 1/2 Cup cold water to cool down the dye mix, I added 1/2 Cup of snow (maybe crushed ice would work?). This seemed to work well for me. We will see if it makes any difference in the final product.

So, the bottom line here is just try and see what works for you! The only things you really need to be careful of (when using the Dylon dye) are:

1. Use powder dyes in a well-ventilated area...ie, do not breath the power/dust.

2. Use rubber gloves when working with the dyes (powder or liquid) or you will have permanently dyed hands!

3. Wear old clothes and shoes when working with the dyes (if you have on anything half-way decent, it will be a new color after this!) BTW...this morning while checking on my batch from yesterday (just peeking), I managed to tip the basin and slosh diluted dye all over one foot...so I now have one purple sock to go with a white one...LOL! (I rinsed it right away, so it will probably be OK.)

4. Start with 1 Tbspn non-iodized Salt to 1/2 Cup Hot water.

5. After that, add your powder dye of choice and mix well by stirring or turning the jar gently (with the lid on...lol).

Then, just experiment and have fun with it!

It is really addictive, so be careful...you might like this as much as we do...

Well, the first picture is of the Ocean Blue/Jeans Blue/and yellow fabrics. The second one is the Olive Green, Dark Green, Dark Brown and a bit of Yellow.

The third picture is where I decided due to the cold arctic wind blowing and the dye was not showing on the snow, it was time to remove the snow and bring the project to the house. The pictures of the first two fabrics were after 3 rinses. Have done 5 rinses now and they are not losing much color at all.

The last two pictures are of the first project done on the 22nd. Very pleased with the butterfly in the first one - the second one shows where the yellow decided to land. All in all, I am pretty happy with the results thus far.

Well, the first picture is of the Ocean Blue/Jeans Blue/and yellow fabrics. The second one is the Olive Green, Dark Green, Dark Brown and a bit of Yellow.

The third picture is where I decided due to the cold arctic wind blowing and the dye was not showing on the snow, it was time to remove the snow and bring the project to the house. The pictures of the first two fabrics were after 3 rinses. Have done 5 rinses now and they are not losing much color at all.

The last two pictures are of the first project done on the 22nd. Very pleased with the butterfly in the first one - the second one shows where the yellow decided to land. All in all, I am pretty happy with the results thus far.

Looking forward to Patti and Donna's latest experiments.

MargeP

Wow Marge, in the 1st & 2nd pictures the dye looks pretty intense for after 3 rinses. And looks like the yellow fabric gave that little bit of green(?) in there...cool!

I have to finish lunch (after skiing this morning), take a shower, then I can go see how my dye experiments from yesterday are doing. Isn't that wind something??? It's really howling at my house!!!

I managed to tip the basin and slosh diluted dye all over one foot...so I now have one purple sock to go with a white one...LOL! (I rinsed it right away, so it will probably be OK.)

LOL - thanks for the chuckle, Donna. I have been very fortunate thus far and haven't decorated myself. I am so glad you put all the cautions in on working with the dyes - I am practicing what you said but forgot to state how important it is.

Couple more rinses and I will do the vinegar ones and then wash and dry. Need to see if I have some unwashed darker fabrics to put in with these two - pretty silly to wash just 2 half yard pieces.

I didn't ever think I would wish for snow but right now, about 6-8 inches would be welcome so we can have some new stuff. I can still try another one as I am sure my fabric will be in Monday or Tuesday.

If you are member of JoAnn's they have an in store and on-line sale. With your coupon you can buy their Kona pfd fabric for half off. So I bought a bolt of 20 yards. Shipping included it is less than $5 a yard.

My fabric is all washed, dried and pressed. However, my washer decided to stop working after the first time I washed the fabric so just rinsed them by hand again and then dried and pressed them. The washer says F dl so I do believe the door lock itself or the program that works it has gone to heck. I wonder how long it will take Sears to get it fixed.

When I post these pictures you will not think that it is the same fabric that I posted earlier. Course the fabric was wet at that time but it still is not factual.. My lighting was really bad apparently although I had my Ott Lite as the closest source. These pictures look so pale - one looks so light blue and it is actually a green. Anyway, they are done and I am pleased with the end result.

The first two should be the blue ones and the last two the green ones. Donna, will bring them to SAIL tomorrow so you can see them in real life. You will note quite a difference from the pictures. It really has been fun though.

Well, all my 4 different pieces have been rinsed and rinsed and ran through the washing machine & lightly dried. Still need to iron the suckers. I have to say I am a little disappointed in my results from this batch.

It definitely is my own fault! I thought I had a piece of PFD fabric left over from last summer, but obviously had not labeled it (bad girl!). The only piece that I thought it could be was definitely a coarser texture weave, but since I rarely buy any plain white fabric I thought that this must be the PFD fabric. Now, I think I was mistaken!!!

ANOTHER LESSON LEARNED: ALWAYS, ALWAYS, LABEL YOUR PFD FABRIC SO YOU KNOW THAT IT IS WHAT IT IS (SO YOU ARE SURE YOU ARE USING PFD OR TREATED FABRIC FOR DYEING AND DON'T USE IT FOR SOMETHING ELSE).

So, the two pieces that I used this "other" fabric for were difficult to crunch up and as a result did not come out with the marbling effect we got with our first fabrics.

One, I used up some Olive Green (from the week before) and a little Intense Violet. Notice how this piece really emphasized the texture of the fabric! Obviously,some fibers reacted to the green dye much more than other fibers. I thought I put a lot more violet on this, but it sure didn't show up in the final product.

Same fabric, but with Intense Violet plus used up some Ocean Blue (from last week)...again, this was hard to crunch up and as a result doesn't have as much marbling as I had hoped for...but certainly more than the green. But surprise on this one, the dye did not emphasize the fabric texture as much as the green did. Note, the Ocean Blue did not show up much at all.

This next piece was from my left over PFD fabric from LQS - but I used left over dye solution from last week. I think the dye solutions definitely become weaker upon sitting. This was Olive Green and Intense Violet, but see how weak the dye is? The crunching and marbling is more evident, but the color is very weak. But it will be good for a light fabric and/or a landscape quilt.

This last piece is the re-dyeing of half of one I did last week. (Note these pictures were taken after dark and even with the flash turned off, color is not true.)

I tried two methods:

1) On this half, I used a sea-sponge to blot Dark Green dye on the fabric over the olive green areas. First blot, I had too much dye on the sponge and it just soaked that area with the dark green dye (left side in the center). After that, I blotted on a paper towel first and then the fabric and the result was better. However, a lot of this dye washed out in the washing machine cycle. It was a lot more intense before that! (I need help Marge P!!!!)

After rinsing, but before Washing Machine:

(See the line in the center bottom that curves to the right? That was an edge of a plastic dishpan that I had used to prop up the other half of the fabric. But look at the "after machine washing" picture below!

After rinsing AND washing machine:

(That line from the dishpan is completely gone after the machine wash!)

2) Last piece is the section where I over-dyed with green-dyed snow (mixed the dye with the snow before piling it on the crunched fabric). It really did not add much intensity to the piece, so I am not sure about this one. (It could be because of the water-content of the snow and why one blog suggested dry new-snow.)

So, I am learning as I go...

I need to iron my pieces now so I can take to SAIL to show Marge P in the morning. Can't wait to see her pieces!!! They really look gorgeous in the pictures!